Columbarium and tablet, First Parish, Portland, Unitarian Universalist, 1909
Item 7169 info
First Parish in Portland
Kotzschmar then went to work at State Street Congregational Church for five years.
He resigned in 1903, and occasionally substituted at area churches after that.
He continued to teach and give recitals, both with his students and by himself. He also enjoyed frequent fellowship with musical colleagues in the area.
Hermann Kotzschmar passed away quietly at his home on the morning of April 15, 1908. He had been in good health all of his life and was out and about town until his last week or ten days, when he suddenly appeared to grow visibly weaker and more feeble. The cause of death was listed as a cerebral hemorrhage.
On April 25, 1909, at a crowded memorial service at First Parish Church, the ashes of the dead musician were placed in a cinerary urn, located in a columbarium carved in the solid rock on the back wall of the church.
A commemorative tablet and display, designed and paid for by the Kotzschmar family, is thought to be the first example of cremains deposited in a Portland church.
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